1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable firearm support which an individual may use to support any one of a variety of weapons, particularly small arms such as pistols, rifles and shotguns, in particular rifles, from a variety of firing positions.
2. Related Art
Benches such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,581 are primarily intended for target shooting. U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,559 discloses a "portable" bench comprising a table, legs, a gun support assembly, a stool and legs with the intended purpose being to carry it to the field where it is assembled. The hunter in the field, either stalking or waiting at a stand however, cannot easily transport, nor conveniently set up and use such a bulky and cumbersome apparatus. There are however, a variety of gun rests of monopod, bipod and tripod configuration which may be used in the field.
It is well recognized that because of the accuracy and range of modern rifles and the sighting equipment, optimum marksmanship cannot be achieved when the rifle is supported and aimed totally by a person because the rifle cannot be held steady enough. Gun rests of varying design and configuration have been used since the advent of firearms. Most of the prior art gun rests were designed for military application, with the bipods having specific application to relatively heavy semi-automatic or automatic weapons intended to be fired from the prone position.
It is likely that the earliest known rest was a forked stick of selected length used to support the barrel of a gun while aiming and firing. Such rests were known and used in the orient, europe and this country as military equipment. There have been many proposed improvements on this simple design, for example, U.S. Pat. No. to 1,890,423, Teagarden discloses a telescoping spring biased rest with a spring loaded latch to secure the rest at the selected height; U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,422, to Harris which discloses a bipod adapted for attachment to a firearm and U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,398, to Picket, which discloses a telescoping monopod with a base plate and clamping means for securing a barrel thereon.
What an overview of the prior art suggests is that the simple forked stick was indeed too simple and generally the development in this art has been to develop complicated, large and bulky devices to replace the forked stick which worked, but was inconvenient because it had only a single length. Hence, several designs have employed telescoping leg(s), with various methods of adjusting and securing the telescoping leg at a desired length. Simplicity and speed of adjustment, silence and dependable performance are the essentials for a hunter's gun equipment.
It is an advantage that the present invention provides the dependable performance known for centuries as provided by the forked stick. It is a further advantage of the present invention that it is simple in its mechanical aspects, whereby breakdown or improper performance are substantially impossible. It is a particular feature of the present invention that it is rapidly adjustable to the desired height and readily collapsible to its compact travel form with only one hand, both very silently. These and other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description.